St Joseph's and St Edmund Campion

Rocket Science. Cubs help in National scientific research.

19th Maidenhead Cubs have been growing seeds from space! In September, 2kg of rocket seeds were flown to the International Space Station (ISS) on Soyuz 44S and have spent several months in microgravity. The seed packs returned to Earth earlier in April and are part of an educational project launched by the Royal Horticultural society and the UK Space Agency.

19th Maidenhead Cubs are one of 10,000 groups who have received a packet of 100 seeds from space, which they have been growing alongside seeds that haven’t been to space and measure the differences over seven weeks.

The Cubs won’t know which seed packet contains seeds from space, until all results have been collected by the Royal Horticultural Society and analysed by professional biostatisticians. St Mary’s School have kindly agreed to support the experiment, where as a number of the Cubs attend so they can ensure the project can be looked after on a daily basis.

The out-of-this-world, nationwide science experiment will enable the children to think more about how we could preserve human life on another planet in the future, what astronauts need to survive long-term missions in space and the difficulties surrounding growing fresh food in challenging climates. Cub Leader, Loz Marchant says, “We are very excited to be taking part in Rocket Science. I can’t think of a better way of working towards the science activity badge!”